The Government has embarked on a concerted move to improve the delivery of health care in the parish of Trelawny, and is slated to spend an estimated $60 million to upgrade two facilities in the parish in the new year.

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson announced that government will be spending approximately $10 million on refurbishing and infrastructural work at the Ulster Spring Health Centre, and an estimated $50 million on the Falmouth Hospital and Health Centre, the latter to be accommodated in the next financial year. The minister toured both facilities on Friday, December 21, following which he made the announcements.

Work on the Ulster Spring Health Centre will be done in collaboration with the group 'The friends of the Ulster Spring Hospital', a philanthropic organisation with local and overseas arms, that has already given a commitment to raise funds towards the improvement and support of the facility.

"I see the possibility for private-public partnership. I see the possibilities for your friends' group, both locally and overseas, to partner with the Government of Jamaica, to ensure that we get this Ulster Spring Clinic back to its glory days," Dr Ferguson stated.

He said that there would be general refurbishing of the building; upgrading of the sewage system; reintroduction of a morgue service; provision of equipment and more medical personnel, including dentists, at the facility.

With respect to the Falmouth Hospital and Health Centre, Dr Ferguson announced that the operating theatre has been targeted for refurbishing, among other infrastructural upgrades.

environmental issues

"We have the pharmacy area, the waiting area to be dealt with (expanded). I have given a commitment that in the next financial year we will be working on that. Already we have done, and are in the process of doing, a consultancy to check out the soil type and some of the environmentally related issues that we believe must be checked out before we do any meaningful quantities for that work," Minister Ferguson stated.

He explained that he was having discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, through the sugar transformation programme, with regards to sharing the cost of refurbishing the health centre.

"I think the initial estimate for those works was somewhere in the region of $50 million. We are trying to see if we can get them to work with the Ministry of Health, even on a fifty-fifty basis, to have that done, and that would be projected in the next financial year," he stated.